Analysis Page 84-149

      In the late 1900s, the development of the personal computer became a main priority in technological advances. Many began working on constructing new designs for a desktop computer kit and the one in particular that lead the pack was the Altair 8800 created by Edward Roberts.

     Roberts intended to sell his computer to hobbyist since at the time the “desktop” computer was not practical for the use of all users. Altair later combined with the efforts of MITS and gained much success until their release of a new microcomputer based around the Motorola 6800. Due to compatibility issues and MITS lack of resources to support both machines their success began to decline. “Despite the demise of MITS and the Altair, the microcomputer revolution started by that machine had just begun” (pg. 90). Other companies began to develop their own microcomputers and soon they were even being introduced to nonhobbyists.  Radio Shack began to sell the TRS-80 nationally in 1977 to all users.

     Also in 1977 the Apple II, designed by Steve Wozniack was introduced. The Apple II was the first computer to be widely available to the public with its institution in classrooms across the country. Steve Jobs recruited “Woz” full time to be co-founders of Apple, instead of being employed at Hewlett-Packard. Their company became quite a success and now was even competing with IBM and Microsoft in the development of the microcomputer. As time went on other companies were being driven out and “it looked like there would soon be only two companies left selling microcomputers on a large scale to battle for supremacy: IBM and Apple” (pg. 96).

     The development and use of desktop computers in the second half of the 20^th century had greatly expanded. “In 1970, total sales of software by U.S software firms was less than half a billion dollars. By 1980 U.S software sales reached $2 billion” (pg. 102-103). Up until the late 1970s, microcomputers were only created for hobbyists and commercial use. Today it is quite common to have at least one desktop computer per household, if not one for every member of the family. The computer has become widely mainstream throughout the world and it allows us to stay connected from one computer to the next. Without the progression of such companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Apple, and many others we would not be as technologically advanced as we are today.

Texts From Last Night

     Last Friday I went to see the Texts From Last Night creators’ Ben Bator and Lauren Leto. I often visit the website and get a good laugh out of it most of the time, so I was actually quite excited to hear what the two of them had to say. I expected some elaborate, entertaining story to go along with the formation of the site, but I was less than satisfied with their narrative and delivery. It seemed as if they didn’t even know why they were up on stage speaking to all of us. It was almost disappointing to hear that their success was complete luck and that they put almost no effort into making the site so popular. Their intentions were to just keep it between them and their group of friends and now it has turned into a highly visited website, book, and television series.

     Ben did most of the talking and Lauren jumped in whenever she could. Neither of them were particularly funny, and even when Lauren was reading some of the texts out loud, she did it with a very lack-luster attitude, which took away from the hilarity of it all.  When it came to the question and answer portion, they were very rarely able to give up any information and when people asked personal questions, such as reading their own embarrassing texts, they didn’t have much to offer. We were all given a raffle ticket for which a few of the TFLN books would be auctioned off. That was pretty exciting, until I realized that they gave my boyfriend and I the exact same ticket and we had no chance of winning. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to continue using the website instead. Thanks for visiting Ben and Lauren! 

Analysis Pages 1-83

Our culture is largely based on the ever-changing advancements in technology. Throughout the book Computers, we follow the history and development of this technology and examine the effects it has on our lives. It began with the early inventions of previous centuries such as astrolabes and abacuses. Although these innovations were quite primitive they greatly improved the lives of these people by making everyday tasks simpler and more efficient.  Throughout the last century there has been overwhelming amounts of new and innovative development that assist us in every aspect of society. One innovation in particular,  is the use of computers to tabulate the US census. It would often take years to account for all the US citizens, even coming close to overlapping the following census, but with these specifically designed computers, they were able to significantly reduce that time. The book helps explain these ideas and many more, as well as  how computers have forever changed American society on a federal, business, and personal scale.


World War II increased the development of technology significantly. In Ferro's words "Never had a war been so dependent on research in science and technology" (pg 47). It was during this time that IBM became a huge part of the technology sector. It introduced hundreds of computers, created primarily for niche markets. It was also during this time that the first programming languages were created. The microprocessor changed these computers heavily making them lighter, more efficient, cooler, and less prone to failure. Jack Kilby received the Nobel Peace Prize for his invention of the microprocessor.


American culture was forever changed with the development of this new technology. Businesses became larger, faster, and more efficient and entirely new fields such as online markets were created. Today we are constantly connect. We have come a long way from computers the size of entire rooms to our small hand held devices such as cell phones and iPods. New technology forever changes and continues to change our lives and with it we are forever connected to one another and all the knowledge that society has to offer. 

Tech logs

I've never blogged before, but this seems like a new and exciting teaching style that actually allows us to use the technology that we will be learning about in class. I logged the websites I visited in the last few days.

The sites include:

Facebook.com; Reddit.com, Google.com, Yahoo.com, Sakai.rutgers.edu; My.rutgers.edu; 2dopeboyz.com

These sites pretty much just stay open at all times and I freak out when people use my laptop and close out of any of them. Facebook is my top site. I am logged on pretty much the entire day and have to pretend I'm offline most of the time so I don't seem like an addict. I am also addicted to Reddit now thanks to my boyfriend. Who knew it could be so entertaining. It's no wonder my boyfriend rather be on that site than hang out with me. Google is pretty much a way of life. I can not even count the number of times I use it to look up whatever comes to mind. I don't know how I figured thing out before Google. I use Yahoo for my e-mail. I usually check it daily, but the only thing I ever really get emailed about is who wrote on my wall or tagged me in a picture on Facebook, which I probably already checked. I use Sakai and My.rutgers to check email and look up assignments at least once a day and I go on 2dopeboyz sporadically to hopefully download new music. In conclusion, I spend an insane amount of time on my laptop.